Pajaro Valley Federation of Teachers

PVFT Questions and Answers

The district is implying that PVFT is refusing to negotiate. Is that true?

No, it is not true.
PVFT notified the district in writing that it always has and will continue to negotiate in good faith with the district. However, PVFT made it clear that negotiations must conform to state law, which the district has not done.

The California Government Code Section 3547 requires that initial negotiations proposals by the district or the union be presented at a public school board meeting. This is called “sunshining.” The law says, “After the public has had the opportunity to express itself, [the district] shall adopt its initial proposal.” Only after that process may negotiations commence.

PVUSD never sunshined its proposals for 08-09, 09-10, and 10-11. Instead, at the April 8, 2008 negotiations session regarding the 07-08 contract proposal, the district presented what they called their “cost savings proposal” to PVFT’s negotiations team. The district’s proposal included a 2% roll back in salary a year for the next three years, a 5% cut in benefits, increases in class staffing ratios, elimination of elementary preparation time, and other cutbacks.

The PVFT negotiations team responded that it lacked authority from our members to negotiate for 08-09 and beyond since these proposals had not been sunshined. Neither the public nor our members have had the chance to review these proposals. We also informed the district that PVFT needed to survey our members regarding these cutback proposals and would get back to the district once this process was completed.

This survey was sent to all members and the results have been tabulated. Our members told us they do not want the union to accept pay or benefit cuts.

Are 07-08 negotiations finished?

No. On April 8, the district’s negotiator informed the union that the district would not continue negotiations on 07-08 items unless we first agreed to the district’s cutback proposals. This in itself is illegal “conditional bargaining.”

There are important topics from PVFT’s 07-08 proposal that have not yet been addressed, including whether to continue with full-day kindergarten.

Did the union negotiate the SERP without it being sunshined?

No. Improvements in compensation were sunshined by the district on October 24, 2007 in its 07-08 proposal. The retirement incentive is a form of compensation and therefore was negotiated within the parameters of the sunshined 07-08 proposals.

We hear that the school board will have no option but to cut class size reduction and release time because the PVFT has refused to negotiate and those are the only non-negotiable items left that cost the district a significant amount of money.

Contrary to the district’s statements, PVFT’s legal counsel assures us that release time changes for elementary teachers must be negotiated and that the district acted unlawfully when the school board changed release time without negotiations. While the district has the authority to eliminate class size reduction, why would it choose to eliminate a program that is very popular with parents and which costs relatively little because it is mostly paid for by state funding.

The question that needs to be answered is, “Where are the cuts at the top?” We started the 07-08 year with SIX top-level positions and it appears that next year we will AGAIN have SIX top-level positions.

Why is the district asking for pay cuts?

Over the past 14 years, the district has failed to live within its financial means. Every few years the district then asks the employees to reduce their pay to allow the district to stay afloat. The Santa Cruz Grand Jury is among the authorities that recommended that the district improve its budgeting process. Relying on pay cuts instead of financial planning has become the district’s method of budgeting. PVFT doesn’t believe that employees should carry the district on our backs. We need our earnings to live and work in this very expensive region.

In October of 2004, the district’s Organizational and Efficiency Study (Management Audit) recommended cost cutting measures and ways to increase revenue. The management audit found that “…the district could potentially reduce administrative staffing” and “could potentially reduce administrative costs by $650,000.” In addition, the management audit found that “The three-zone structure of the District results in significant administrative costs not common among districts organized along more traditional lines.”

Should teachers accept any reductions in salary or benefits?

Including the cost of health and welfare benefits, our certificated staff is paid almost 6% below the median of districts in our local labor market. Our working conditions continue to deteriorate even though many of our schools continue making progress. Teachers, classified staff and students are not the cause of this problem and the budget should not be balanced on their backs!

Some districts around us have received pay raises for the 07-08 school year! We have been working without a contract for almost a year. We understand that these are difficult times for education statewide, but it is preemptive for us to accept paycuts based on what may happen in Sacramento.

Can we mobilize the parents and students at our school sites to support education and educators?

We cannot use district resources to do so nor can we do this work on paid time. However, we can organize parents and community off campus and on our own time to ask, “Why is our district in this situation?”

Many of our sites have begun to hold informational pickets and are discussing how we can fight off these proposed cuts. Many more site actions are in the planning phases.

The Contract Campaign Committee will put out a newsletter very soon to explain in detail, options that sites have and ways that PVFT can support mobilizing out members.

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